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2019 Diddler Cup Racing Series
The 2019 Diddler Cup Racing Series is the third season of the Diddler Cup Racing Series, a stock car racing championship series on IRM. The season begins on April 28, 2019 at Diddler Motor Speedway in South Tucson, Arizona, and concludes on September 22, 2019 at Scorch's PFG Racetrack in Santa Monica, California. The defending champion is Joe-Jon Winchester, who returns in the #47 ATF/Bureau Chevrolet, sponsored by Just Guns. Commentary Team *Chip Chapman (Bryan) - Veteran play by play racing announcer *"Lightning" Lloyd Shivers (RJ) - Former South Tucson short track champion *Beaumont Jenkins (Caveman) - President of the Wooba Bally Fan Club Format changes Last year's season was the first to introduce the "regular season and playoffs" format, and this season has expanded upon that format. The season is made up of 25 races, three more than last year. The regular season portion will comprise of the first 15 races instead of 14. There will still be 16 drivers who qualify for the "playoffs", which has expanded to 10 races from last year's 8. Qualification for the playoffs is awarded to the highest points total at the end of the 15 regular season races. Additionally, every driver who wins one of these 15 races will qualify. If any spots are still open (due to multiple winners or the points leader also winning a race), the next highest point totals will qualify as well. Each round of the playoffs will be made up of three races, with the exception of the final Championship race. At the end of each round, the bottom four drivers are eliminated. Playoff competitors who win a race automatically qualify for the next round. The highest finisher of the four remaining drivers on the final Championship race of the season will be crowned the series champion. 'Battle for Fifth' As was the case last year, as playoff drivers are eliminated, their points are reset to the start of the playoffs (4000 points + playoff points) and the race points won are added back. This allows the 12 eliminated drivers to battle one another for fifth place throughout the 10 playoff races. Teams and Drivers For sponsorship info: 2019 Diddler Cup Team Chart 'Changes' Teams *For the first time, racing teams were allowed to take on secondary sponsors in addition to their primary sponsor. Many teams will then run multiple different *Citing budget issues, ATF Bureau Racing announced the shutdown of the #27 team after one year of operation. The team will operate in 2019 with two active cars. Additionally, the #21 car has changed to #17, alongside the change of sponsors, with LegalBetForRealMoney.gov no longer staying on. The new sponsorship package would be "DRUGS", whatever that means. *Throat Candy Tobacco Lozenges will not renew its sponsorship with ATF Bureau Racing, or any other racing team. *Jeff Chinese announced the formation of his own racing team, Iron Jeff Racing. The team purchased the #8 team to join the #38, keeping Jeff Gordon the Horse at the wheel. (Because how can you tell a horse they're not driving anymore? He won't understand!) The team adds the new #88 team as well. The primary sponsor for this team will be the retail chain JEFF-Y-E. *(Adjective) Foods announced the addition of the Mouthfeel brand of sauces, condiments, and spreads to their sponsorship package. Mouthfeel would sponsor the #82 car, with SO MUCH CHICKEN moving to the #81 team, and All The Ham to the #83 team as primary sponsors. The #81 and #83 teams would also feature secondary sponsors for several races. *To make room for a new full sponsorship package signed to the #22 car, spearheaded by Blennzoil, Most Glorious Motorsports has condensed their prior sponsors to the #10 car. The primary sponsor will remain Most Glorious Mr. Naga, himself, but the #10 car will also be sponsored by a variety of brands under "Most Glorious & Honorable Mr. Naga's vast combat sport empire". *Due to the success of the #90 team in 2018, Matryoshka Inc. has signed a sponsorship deal with the Russian television network Sportsnaz, along with alternate paint schemes promoting the various programming on the network. *Fulfilling a promise made to its youth football program, South Tucson Youth Motorsports will feature the sponsor of its annual champions on one of the cars for 6 races. This year, the #28 car will feature an alternate paint scheme for 2018-19 champions The Binging Texan BBQ Buffet. Additionally, to retroactively honor this deal, the three past league champions will each have alternate paint schemes for 3 races, featured on either the #60 or #13 car. *Wooba Bally is so insistent that you SIGN THE PETITION that he will run 2 races with a "SIGN THE PETITION" paint scheme. Drivers *Due to his tragic death in the final race of the 2018 season, 542 Norman was replaced in the #13 car by another South Tucson Youth Motorsports academy student, XXX Macklin, for the 2019 season. *Bowie Jessup signed a contract with Dixie Wimmer Inc. to drive the #9 GumBooze car. He will replace Stumpy Lane, who was released from his contract. *The mysterious Steve Thompson was brought in by ATF Bureau Racing to drive the #17 car. He replaces Cobb Salad, who drove for this team last year when they were the #21 car. *Agent Toby Keith will not return to drive in the 2019 season after being called into the field on a secret mission. *Recently awoken from his medically induced coma, Thicker Richard Ketchup has been signed by (Adjective) Foods, and will drive the #82 car, replacing Harry Gunt. *DIRK Tanaka has left SlapDong Corporate Racing's #99 team to join Iron Jeff Racing and drive their new #88 team. *SlapDong Corporate Racing signed rookie Hans Weisspulver to drive the #99 car for the 2019 season. *Due to the mysterious disappearance of Vitaly Kryptov, Matryoshka Inc. has signed BOBROVSKY to drive the #1 car. *To fill the vacancy left by Bowie Jessup, Most Glorious Mr. Naga has signed Blario Blandretti to drive the #22 car. Manufacturers *With the formation of Iron Jeff Racing, it was announced that Toyota would be their new manufacturer. Both the #8 and #38 teams would race under Toyota instead of Chevrolet. Schedule Dates subject to change. Season Summary 'Race Reports' Race 1: Taxidermy WOW! Get Stuffed 300 Paul Walker started on the pole, leading for nearly half the race, before being passed by Jeff Gordon The Horse. An early incident on the first two laps saw Paul Alcohol spin out after a collision involving Richard Blood and Jim Blossoms. Meanwhile, 2017 champion Jean-Paul Henry ended his race early due to camshaft issues. With 10 laps to go, after fighting lap traffic, the lead was contested by three drivers: Jeff Gordon The Horse, Bucky Dewshine, and rookie Hans Weisspulver. Weisspulver made the pass on The Horse, but gave up the lead at the white flag on the straightaway. However, Weisspulver had Dewshine behind him to draft, and was strong enough into the turns to fend off The Horse and win his first ever Diddler Cup start. Race 2: Tucsonade Dehydration Grand Prix Paul Walker started on pole for the second race straight. A chaotic first lap saw five cars have to visit pit road due to an incident at the back of the field. Joe-Jon Winchester took the lead on the first lap and held it until Lap 5, when a Sandstorm by Darude made a quick return after just hitting South Tucson on Saturday. The race was called off, not yet reaching the halfway point, and postponed to the following night. Winchester again led the new race, until Lap 6 when he appeared to have tire issues and needed to pit. This seemed to be a common theme for drivers at the front, as the initial lead pack whittled away, as Paul Alcohol, Morris Mayfield, and Jeff Gordon The Horse all had to pit for unknown reasons. By the last 3 laps, the lead drivers were Reverend Pastorchavez, JEFF Tanaka, and El Matador Toto Rosanna, with Pastorchavez and Rosanna the two most recent winners on this track. Pastorchavez took the lead from Winchester on Lap 6 and held it for the remainder of the race, fighting off Tanaka on the final stretch to win the race. Race 3: A "Daytona" "500" Smiley van Vuuren started on the pole, but it was Kevin Boughner-Pillman from the second row who led the first lap. The lead would change around as the pack remained tight at the front, with Morris Mayfield, Steve Thompson, and Jean-Paul Henry taking turns at the front, with Richard Blood setting in for a while before Joe-Jon Winchester led the field about a quarter of the way into the race. Just past the halfway point saw green flag pit stops begin, and after four laps, the field would cycle through, and Hans Weisspulver took the lead at Lap 37. For the remaining 24 laps, the field would split, with a front pack of 9 cars sitting 4 seconds ahead of a 6-car group. With 15 laps to go, the gap between these two lead groups started to decrease, at about half a second per lap. By 10 to go, this became one 13-car lead group that would battle it out for the win. Weisspulver held the lead until Paul Alcohol made the pass with 6 laps to go, and Paul Walker a lap down in front of the pack. Weisspulver regained the lead with 4 laps to go, but pole sitter Smiley van Vuuren, who caught up from that 6-car pack, led his first lap of the race at Lap 58. Morris Mayfield took the inside with two laps to go, and raced van Vuuren side by side. Coming into the final turn to take the white flag, van Vuuren slid down in front of Mayfield with an all important block, and held the lead to win his first ever race. Race 4: Florida Man 400 Smiley van Vuuren started on the pole for the second week in a row, alongside Joe-Jon Winchester. The 32-car field stayed closely packed together until lap 18, when a wreck involving Fat Darryl, Wooba Bally, Jeff Gordon The Horse, and many other drivers, brought out the first (and only) caution of the race. Every car visited pit road during the caution, and the restart saw the field begin to splinter. Ten different drivers led at least a lap during this race, with Jean-Paul Henry and Giaccomo Giaccomo leading for significant stretches. An incident where teammates Ennio Sporini and Big Daddy Thibodeaux made contact with one another avoided a caution thanks to the expert driving of both men, righting their cars and avoiding any damage. Green flag pit stops came during the Lap 49-52 window of the 90-lap race, and a pack of 7 cars eventually thinned out the competition and took the lead. This group included Henry, Giaccomo, Paul Alcohol, Richard Blood, Petrol Topov, Steve Thompson, and Sporini, even after his near wreck. With ten laps to go, the field needed one more visit to pit road, but instead of all pitting together, three different groups of the lead pack separated. Despite not pitting together, the two War Machine Racing Fords, Alcohol and Giaccomo, led the field by several seconds thanks to excellent pit stops, and finished first and second, with Alcohol winning the race and extending his all-time race win total to 6. Race 5: Stolen Valor 258 Race report coming soon. Race 6: The Proclaimers' I Would Walk 500 Richard Blood started on the pole, with JEFF Tanaka on the outside of row 1. Blood would lead the first 40 laps before losing the lead to Tanaka, who would then hold the lead and fight off Kevin Boughner-Pillman and Paul Walker for the finish, both finishing under 0.5 seconds after the winner. Unfortunately, due to game issues, and the now infamous Eurovision Riots of 2019, this race was not broadcast live. Results and Standings 'Race Results' 'Driver Standings' A * indicates the driver led at least one lap during the race, for an additional 5 bonus points. A second * indicates the driver led the most laps during the race, for 5 bonus points in addition to the previous 5 points. 'Manufacturers' Standings' 'Playoff Grid' Drivers currently qualified for Playoffs: *Hans Weisspulver (South Tucson) *Reverend Pastorchavez (South Tucson) *Smiley van Vuuren (Daytona, Langhorne) *Paul Alcohol (Destin) *JEFF Tanaka (Europe) Notes ----